Johannes BRAHMS (1833-1897)
A German Requiem Op.45 (1857-68) [61:18]
Rehearsal segment [2:38]
Wolfgang Amadeus MOZART (1756-1791)
Serenade in D major Serenata notturna K239 (1776) [11:43]
Elisabeth Grümmer (soprano); Hermann Prey (baritone)
Cologne Radio Symphony Orchestra/Otto Klemperer
rec. 19 February (rehearsal of Requiem) and 20 February 1956 (performance
of Requiem); 25 October 1954 (Mozart), Saal 1, Funkhaus, Cologne
ICA CLASSICS ICAC 5002 [78:02]
Otto Klemperer had an old friend and colleague in the broadcasting station
at Cologne: Eigel Kruttge (1899-1979). In 1922 he had become Klemperer’s
assistant at the opera house in the city, and though their paths thereafter
diverged, Kruttge was very helpful in obtaining Klemperer’s services
after the war. A series of studio broadcasts followed, and we have two performances
in this disc.
By a long way the more important is the 1956 German Requiem. Though his later
studio recording with the Philharmonia remains a towering achievement, indeed
a talisman of his Brahms conducting - linear, direct, and unsentimental -
this earlier performance is yet more direct. In fact it’s around nine
or ten minutes quicker than the London account, and allows one an increased
perspective on Klemperer’s priorities in this work as they changed,
or mutated, or redefined themselves.
Principally one notices the overwhelming sense of dynamism that he generates.
There is no hint of the marmoreal; instead consolation comes through rhythmically
charged tempi, sharp accenting, forward choral contributions, and direct and
unmannered solo singing. The result is that the music proceeds in a steadily
evolving, unbroken arch, rather than relapsing, as can happen, into a series
of choral and orchestral vignettes. There is no sign of the ‘manic’
Klemperer here, simple a disciplined one conscious that even in the longest
movements - Denn alles Fleisch, for example - a sense of inner motion
must be maintained, and that the interlocking sections must make both local
and national sense, as it were.
Throughout I find this admirable. The well-moulded Selig sind opens
the work with a sense of forward motion; the choral entries are precise, the
wind lines audible, and so too the important harp. Baritone Hermann Prey was
27 when he performed with Klemperer. The voice sounds firm, well-rounded,
focused, the interpretation mature, direct, and unwilling to indulge metrical
or verbal dalliances, such as would imperil the directness of the music-making.
Other, more interventionist baritones can unsettle things through their insistence
on rubato stretching or through drawing attention to over-expressive nuances.
Not here. Elisabeth Grümmer was 45, and again she sings with admirable
unselfconsciousness. Directness of utterance in her case, as with Prey’s,
is not to be confused with indifference, or coldness. Rather it is a vindication
of Klemperer’s ensemble virtues that orchestra, chorus and solo singers
are directed to the same aim. This becomes overwhelmingly clear by the time
we reach the final movement, but it is clear throughout, and it’s the
accumulation of such direct consolatory drive that gives this performance
its sense of integrity and power and humanity.
There is a brief rehearsal segment - two and a half minutes - in which one
can hear Klemperer talking and singing along - that’s ‘conductor
singing’, a species of sing-along known only to those who wield the
baton. The Mozart Serenata notturna comes from a 1954 concert, and
prefaced Mahler’s Fourth Symphony.
This valuable document is in good mono sound, with somewhat florid booklet
notes. This invigorating reading adds an exciting new vista on the conductor’s
performances of the German Requiem.
Jonathan Woolf
An invigorating reading that adds an exciting new vista to the conductor’s
performances of the German Requiem.
Masterwork Index: Brahms Requiem